Samuel Johnson

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

Words are but the signs of ideas.

I gleaned jests at home from obsolete farces.

It is better that some should be unhappy than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and coloring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits not because recompense is a pleasure for them, but because obligation is a pain.

He gains everyone’s approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful.

You affect your subconscious mind by verbal repetition.

I think I can say, and say with pride, that we have some legislatures that bring higher prices than any in the world.

He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?.

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered.

We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.

I think if we go back and check our record, the Negro has proven beyond a doubt that we have been more than patient in seeking our rights as American citizens.

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated use rather than total abstinence.

There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that everyone can, in the end get what he wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more or less an exception to the general rule.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.

It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering.